Communicated consumer Co-creation : consumer response to consumer Co-creation in new product and service development

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores both participating and non-participating consumer responses to consumer co-creation in new product and service development. Participating consumers can ideate and select new products or services that the brand can offer to the market. To date, research has predominantly focused on participating consumers. We know much less about non-participating consumers, who typically find out about consumer co-created products and services through brands’ marketing communication. This thesis contributes to consumer behaviour, marketing communications, and the research on new product development, by identifying and explaining some of the factors at play in current consumer marketing, where the brand is no longer the sole source of new products and services. In five articles I present empirical research conducted in a longitudinal, qualitative study and six experimental studies. The findings show that the success of new co-created offerings is dependent on consumer perceptions of the meaning of consumer co-creation in terms of who and why consumers are involved, how they co-create, and the type of products and services in which co-creation results. The findings in this thesis can guide practitioners in the design and communication of consumer co-creation, because marketing effects of consumer co-creation are affected by a number of factors that practitioners often have some degree of control over.